Why do only Chinese people like to drink hot water? Is "drinking more hot water" really useful?

Drinking hot water seems to be a tradition deeply rooted in the Chinese people.

Although my boyfriend’s words “drink more hot water” always sound a bit perfunctory, it cannot be denied that hot water is indeed a panacea in many situations.

Especially now when the weather is getting warmer but still cold, a cup of hot water when you get home can immediately restore your energy.

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But in foreign countries, drinking hot water is not common.

Japan and South Korea, both located in Southeast Asia, are accustomed to drinking cold water with every meal, even in the cold winter season, and sometimes even add ice cubes.

At this point, one can't help wondering, don't their teeth and stomachs hurt? Is the dispute between cold water and hot water due to differences in physical constitution?

01

The habit of drinking hot water

Not really ancient

Before answering this question, we must first clarify a concept: hot water in the Chinese context usually refers to cold water that has been boiled to a boiling state and then naturally cooled down to a drinkable state.

The Chinese have a long history with hot water.

According to archaeologists, as early as 20,000 years ago, people had already heated water in containers over fire.

The fact that drinking hot water has become a lifestyle habit is inseparable from the prevalence of "tea" culture.

It was popular in the Tang Dynasty to brew tea, which meant grinding the tea into powder, boiling the water, adding the tea powder, and you were done.

In the Song Dynasty, people were used to making tea, which also used tea powder and boiling water, but they just poured boiling water into the tea powder in reverse.

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The way people drink tea now originated in the Ming Dynasty, which is to brew tea with boiling water.

But it should be noted that although the habit of drinking hot water has existed for a long time, it is only limited to wealthy people or literati.

The harsh reality is that most people have to work every day and don’t have the leisure to wait for the water to boil. At that time, only the upper class could afford better insulation equipment.

It has only been seventy years since the entire population got used to drinking hot water.

In the 1950s, Xinhua News Agency published a confession claiming that the US military dropped biological bombs in North Korea.

In order to improve the national health level, a "Patriotic Health Campaign" was launched across the country in 1952. One of the important items was to boil water before drinking it.

This has a theoretical basis: in boiling water, most bacteria cannot survive.

With the support of the state, kettles that can boil water and keep it warm have entered the homes of ordinary people. With both the spiritual concept and the material conditions in place, the habit of drinking hot water has been formed among the people.

02

Why don’t people in other countries have the habit of drinking hot water?

In fact, the sanitation situation in Europe in the Middle Ages was worrying, and water sources were seriously polluted, which caused infectious diseases such as cholera that are still horrifying when mentioned today.

After learning from the painful experience, in the 19th century, Britain decided to improve the source of pollution - water resources. However, the method was not to boil the water. Instead, it took advantage of the Industrial Revolution and established a complete filtration and sterilization system.

Two different choices, but essentially the same, which is to drink healthy and pollution-free water.

So this was passed down and became the custom in each region.

03

Is it better to drink hot water or cold water?

Some people may think that, apart from the hygienic conditions of the water itself, hot water is better than cold water. After all, some people will get diarrhea after drinking cold water, and then turn into "Splatoon".

In fact, according to scientific research, cold water and hot water do not have that much impact on the body .

The human body has a temperature regulation mechanism. As long as it is not in extreme conditions, the body temperature will be fixed at 37°C no matter how cold or hot the outside world is.

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The cold and hot water you drink, after passing through the mouth, throat, and digestive tract, is actually very close in temperature to the human body.

Some people may ask, is there no error?

An experiment tells you: Even if you endure the pain and drink hot water, or eat a large bucket of ice cream, the temperature change in your stomach will not exceed 0.3°C .

Some people feel uncomfortable after drinking cold water, but it may just be that their constitution is too sensitive , just like some people cannot eat spicy food.

It all depends on individual physical conditions, not on the superiority of cold water or hot water itself.

So, if you feel comfortable drinking hot water, then drink hot water; if you feel refreshing drinking cold water, then drink cold water; it all depends on the individual and there is no absolute guideline.

But hot water, in some cases, does have more effects than cold water.

For example, when a girl is menstruating, hot water can relax blood vessels and temporarily relieve dysmenorrhea, but it cannot cure it.

When brewing medicine or honey, hot water is also used rather than cold water, but this is simply because hot water can dissolve the powder better and has nothing to do with nutrition or anything like that.

04

Drinking hot water also requires posture and method

For many people, drinking hot water has become a habit. Since there is not much difference between cold water and hot water, there is naturally no need to change this habit.

However, there are many things to note when drinking hot water, and you should not let it become a harmful habit.

1. When drinking hot water, should the temperature be higher?

In the eyes of some elders, hot water is almost equal to scalding water, and any scalding water can be drunk. In fact, this is an unscientific practice - too high a temperature will cause harm to the human body.

The World Health Organization classifies hot water above 65°C as a "Class 2A carcinogen" ("Class 2A carcinogen" means that sufficient evidence of carcinogenicity has been found in animal experiments. It is theoretically carcinogenic to humans, but currently there is limited experimental evidence).

In addition, it is certain that drinking water that is too hot may burn your mouth. If you don't want to get blisters in your mouth, it's best to make it clear that "hot water" actually refers to "warm water."

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2. Can’t drink water that has been boiled many times?

In the family WeChat group chat, there is always a rumor: water cannot be boiled repeatedly, otherwise it will produce nitrite, which is harmful to the human body.

As the saying goes, talking about toxicity without considering the dosage is just nonsense.

A study has counted the nitrite content in water boiled once and 20 times, which were 0.021mg/L and 0.038mg/L respectively. This amount is far below the national standard of 1mg/L for domestic drinking water.

Moreover, the 20 times in the study was already an extreme case.

In reality, water is boiled two or three times at most and then drunk, so the increase in nitrite content is negligible compared to boiling it once.

However, if you use a water dispenser to drink water, you should pay attention to:

The water dispenser will breed bacteria during the use of hot and cold, thus contaminating the water. To solve this problem, just clean the water dispenser regularly.

Boiling water multiple times will not affect your health.

3. Is it necessary to use hot water when taking medicine?

This statement is also a generalization. Different medicinal properties have different ways of taking.

There are several situations where hot water can be a negative influence.

For example, when taking vitamins, probiotics, or live vaccines, drinking warm water above 40°C will destroy the structure.

When taking capsules, hot water may also accelerate the dissolution of the capsule shell, causing the drug in the capsule to be released prematurely.

When taking syrup to relieve cough, mixing it with warm water will also reduce the efficacy of the medicine. After all, the syrup needs to adhere to the surface of the throat to be effective.

In short, be sure to read the precautions in the instruction manual.

4. Should I drink more water?

Water is the source of life. According to the Chinese Dietary Guidelines, the minimum daily water intake for women and men is 1.5L and 1.7L respectively.

But the timing of drinking water is more important than simply drinking more.

You can't go without drinking for a long time, and then wait until you are thirsty and drink a big bucket of water all at once. After all, when you feel thirsty, it's a signal sent by your body.

In short, don't be superstitious about hot water, as long as the water is clean and you don't feel sick after drinking it, it doesn't matter if it's cold.

References:

[1]ER Nadel, and SM Horvath. Peripheral involvement in thermoregulatory response to an imposed heat debt in man[J]. Journal of Applied Psyhology,1969

[2]S Nazzal, Y Wang,Characterization of soft gelatin capsules by thermal analysis[J].International Journal of Pharmaceutics,2001(230):35-45

[3] Shu Weiqun. Healthy drinking water is an important component of the balanced diet of Chinese people[J]. Water Supply and Drainage, 2018, 54(08): 1-3.

[4] Wu Fei, Wang Hui, Shu Jingwei, et al. Study on the correlation between residual chlorine and nitrite content in tap water and heating conditions [J]. Journal of Food Safety and Quality, 2017(11):4458-4462.

Author: Li Mi

Reviewer: Gao Chao, Associate Researcher, Institute of Nutrition and Health, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention

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